Competencies Expected by Construction Industry from Pass-Outs of Diploma Programme in Civil Engineering - a Case Study

Construction industry is undergoing a booming phase these days. With a large number of MNCs having invested and many more are in the process of investing in India, infrastructural requirement has suddenly gone up many fold and that is why, Indian society has witnessed unprecedented boost in Construction industry in last five years or so. The demand of engineers, especially of Civil Engineers has gone up tremendously in last couple of years. To keep pace with infrastuctural development, the optimum use of resources at hand should be made. The most precious resource is

the man himself and therefore Human Resource training assumes a far greater importance in today's environment not only to maintain a high standard of quality and timely construction but also to advance further on technology pedestal to meet day to day challenges that may lie ahead.

The construction industry alone will create more than 17 lakh employment opportunities during the 11th plan period," as projected by Rajeeva Ratna Shah, Member Secretary, Planning Commission. The planning commission estimates seven million job opportunities during the 11th Plan period and at least a good 20 to 25 percent of that will emanate from the construction sector alone. The country would require investments to the tune of $320 million over five to seven years to meet the demands of this sector, he felt. Shah also emphasized the criticality of forging public- private partnerships (PPPs) in the infrastructure sector as they hold the key for achieving our goals.

So it is of great concern to all those involved in planning, organizing, directing, implementing, controlling, and managing diploma programme in civil engineering that this programme is effective and efficient for better employability of civil engineering students coming out of diploma level institutions. The concern is not only to maintain the quality of prod¬uct of civil engineering